Recently, newspapers throughout the world, including here in Malaysia, carried the repulsive images of the sexual and physical tortures in Iraq. The US army's activities there have rightfully been condemned by all quarters besides raising widespread anger.

It is important to remember that it was the fellow colleagues of the guilty soldiers at the heart who chronicled the abuses and brought them to the attention of the higher authorities. And it is to the credit of American media to publish these photos.

Some of the most vociferous condemnations have comes from Americans themselves including those who have supported the war on Iraq - for example Thomas Friedman of the New York Times who has urged the President Bush to fire his defence secretary, Donald Rumsfield.

But it is sheer hypocrisy on the part of Malaysian leaders, including our erstwhile former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to join the chorus of condemnation. We Malaysians seem to have convenient case of amnesia now, forgetting our own Abu Ghraib.

Can anyone forget the vivid photos of Anwar Ibrahim's blackened eye that occurred while Mahathir was home affairs minister. If Anwar, who was then a part of the highest ruling hierarchy, could suffer this fate in Bukit Aman, one can only imagine about the fate of lesser mortals.

There is of course the case of Dr Munawar Anees, a key figure in the Anwar saga, who has vividly recounted of being subjected to terrible abuse at the hands of our Special Branch. (Sexual humiliation has always been a time-honoured method employed by the intelligence apparatus of the state to breakdown detainees psychologically).

These are not isolated incidents. Recently, a commission investigating unlawful detentions of activists in a land dispute in Sabah heard the testimony of detained female activists who were not given sanitary pads despite pleas and had to endure their menstruation flow in a crowded cell.

Even submitting a memorandum to the police on their brutality - the ever rising deaths in police custody, for example - is met with something bordering belligerence.

Finally, there are the never-ending travails of Irene Fernandes, whose 'crime' was to highlight the abuse of migrant workers at a detention centre. Her trial lasted for over seven years making it the longest trial in Malaysia and she attended court 310 times.

Her report, based on over 300 interviews with former migrant worker detainees, entitled 'Abuse, torture and the dehumanised treatment of migrant workers in detention centres' was sent to the relevant authorities and the media in August 1995.

But instead of winning praise for her gutsy stance she has been found guilty and sentenced to jail. Only after an appeal was she allowed to have her passport to travel overseas and even then with an admonition not to embarrass the country at international forums by highlighting other unsavoury Malaysian facts.

The fact is human abuses cut across race, culture and religion and can occur anywhere. There is no shame in admitting it; it is in the denial that is a greater disgrace.

It is the whistleblowers, courageous American and British soldiers and the Irene Fernandezes everywhere who should be lauded for the efforts.

And our leaders and local media and op-ed writers who have been adding their two cents to the Iraq debacle remind me of the Malay proverb which goes along the lines of Gajah di depan mata tak nampak, kuman di seberang laut nampak.